Tag Archives: Ann Gaylia O’Barr

From Fall of the Wall to Quid Pro Quo

Thirty years ago, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Country after country of the former Soviet Union took fledgling steps toward democracy.

Writes Louis D. Sell, a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Yugoslavia at the time: “No one who has ever had the opportunity to witness people standing with patient enthusiasm in long lines to vote for the first time in their lives . . . could ever doubt the power of democracy as an ideal.” (“1989: Seen From Yugoslavia,” The Foreign Service Journal, November 2019)

But we in Western democracies couldn’t comprehend the difficulty of people who had no tradition of democracy attempting to make it work.

Western democracies have centuries old traditions of struggle for people power, from at least 1215, when the Magna Carta limited the power of English king. A free press was a unique Western invention.

Many of the former Soviet nations lacked these traditional defenses against tyranny and against powerful oligarchies seizing wealth and power from collapsing regimes. Democratic practices in some of the countries began to reverse, governments coming under the sway of corrupted newly rich.

The United States and its allies began diplomatic policies to support the fight against corruption in these countries.

Imagine what the secret efforts of a U.S. president to bribe officials in one of those countries, Ukraine, for political gain have done to compromise these policies.

Buying an Ambassadorship

All U.S. politically appointed ambassadors were ordered to quit their posts by the Trump administration when Donald Trump took office. Career ambassadors stayed. This is the usual practice when a new president takes over.

I spent most of my career in the State Department under career ambassadors, for which I was grateful. Of the two politically appointed ambassadors I served under, one did a credible job. The other appeared to be there mostly for the political trappings. Many such appointments are awarded for significant campaign contributions.

One politically appointed ambassador to a small European nation was known mostly for refurbishing the ambassador’s residence.

Politically appointed ambassadors rarely serve in impoverished developing nations or in those on the front lines of war. After all, more ambassadors have been killed than generals. You certainly don’t want that to happen to a party faithful.

Some political appointments do work out well, such as that of Pamela Harriman to the U.S. embassy in Paris. A wealthy socialite once married to the son of Winston Churchill, Harriman was noted for her keen political instincts. She no doubt spoke French very well.

The typical political appointee, however, doesn’t speak the country’s language, unless it’s English, and often knows more about NFL scores than about the foreign country’s history and politics.

Other democracies appoint their most seasoned foreign service officers as ambassadors to the United States. Dictatorships are prone to send cronies to their diplomatic posts.

Time-Starved

Who’s minding the kids?

Who has time to mind the kids?

Who has time to read newspapers?

Who has time to work with the homeless? Or in youth shelters? Or with the handicapped?

Who has time to read or think or write or paint?

As we seek to balance our work lives with other roles, we find ourselves time-starved for anything outside of work.

With the industrial revolution, paid work became limited mainly to men. They went out—to the city, to the office—and women stayed home to raise the children. Only jobs with children and the sick remained open to them, usually with much less pay than the men earned.

Western culture cleaved: men worked at paying jobs; women worked at home. Home became increasingly separate from vocation.

Then women began to notice the cleavage. Having worked for the entire history of the world until that time–on farms and in small family operations—they began to question why they now were kept from the economic work force. They began joining this work force.

However, since most economic activity now takes place away from home, it means no one is around to do home things—taking care of children, the elderly, the sick and the needy.

Our vocations are in need of newer forms: parental leave, fewer penalties for dropping out of the work force for a while to follow other pursuits: family/people/spiritual activities. Replacement of the standard 40-hour work week.

The patterns for work and home need restructuring.

Why I Rarely Give to Political Parties

I vote in every election open to me, but I rarely contribute to political campaigns.

Americans now give massive amounts of money to political causes. According to opensecrets.org, almost 1.5 billion in political spending was raised in 2016.

Until campaign finance laws are passed, I will probably continue my small rebellion against the outsize influence of money on our political process.

I will instead contribute to those worthy causes now struggling as they are bypassed for political giving.

Some are charitable—the local food bank or medical assistance program. Others are religious groups ministering to the grieving and confused. Some help young people find purpose to overcome the destruction caused by drugs.

Political parties feud over the number of Central Americans attempting to cross into the United States. I recently gave to a non-profit group teaching Central Americans better agricultural practices, providing doctors to encourage a healthier population, and lending help for economic activities so the people can support themselves—and not feel compelled to migrate.

Politics has raked in an incredible amount of money, while many other worthy groups suffer from neglect. I can vote for them with my small contributions.

Downton Abbey as Fairy Tale

So here I am enjoying the latest Downton Abbey venture.

Is it a great movie? No.

Is it realistic?

Certainly not in the sense we think of realism today. Stories that don’t always end right but lead us to see ourselves as we are, and perhaps to change, may be more realistic.

But fairy tales have their place. That’s why they’ve been around since people first told stories around a campfire.

Interesting that Downton, a nod to a vanished era, has been so successful when Britain and the United States appear to be falling apart.

But perhaps that’s the reason for its success.

Few of us want a class-based society as Britain used to be or a racist, gilded-age America as existed in the early twentieth century. Yet we sense that much in our long history is worth keeping.

Beyond the racism and wars and other abominable sins, we hunt for the promise of purer things: a sense of family, the carrying out of duty, simple caring—when those values are threatened.

Yes, fairy tales do have a place.

Local Color

Recently the newspaper for our nearest metropolitan area ran a research series about water rights in our state. Water is a precious resource. Should the buying and selling of water rights be run as a for-profit business? Selling water rights has become a way of survival for older farmers with no one to take their places.

The articles provided input for dealing with this issue before it becomes critical. They were typical of the research and reporting of this daily newspaper.

Our smaller community newspaper lets us know about our city council meetings and various local events. It provides a forum for the varied opinions of local citizens. To judge by the number and depth of recent letters to the editor for local candidates, you would not know it was an “off” election year. Local journalism is part of the process.

Newspapers tied to a particular area cannot be replicated by Facebook. Though I occasionally use Facebook for keeping up with acquaintances, I never, ever use it as a source of news. I don’t know why anyone would.

I know the bona fides of my local news sources. I don’t know if a Facebook piece is written by an expert, a Russian troll, or a mentally unbalanced hater.

I’m convinced more than ever of what I learned in my first journalism class in the days of the Cold War: a democracy cannot exist without locally supported newspapers.

What Does “Drain the Swamp” Mean?

The current administration promised to “drain the swamp” when it was elected. What has that meant?

Swamp draining has meant more political ambassadors, appointed because they donated money to a candidate. The number of career ambassadors serving at U.S. embassies is at the lowest level since records have been kept.

Draining the swamps has meant desertion of allies like the Kurds. It has meant holding back funds, for political purposes, voted on by Congress to help Ukrainian allies fight Russian incursion into their country. It has meant losing the respect of our allies.

“Please stay.” That’s the plea from the president of the American Foreign Service Association, as seasoned diplomats quit in frustration.

Fewer young people sign up to take the Foreign Service exam, no longer inspired to enter government service.

Not only in the State Department but in other agencies as well, turnover at the top has been unprecedented. Apparently, swamp draining means little cohesion even among those chosen by the administration. Cabinet secretaries and other appointed officials have quit, some fired by tweet, others leaving in disgust.

Here’s a look at the amount of turnover at the top tiers of our government.

Make your own decision about what draining the swamps means.

Youth: Climate Change—and Now They’re Reporting the News for Us Too

Amid stories coming out of the Trump/Ukraine affair, one bit of news was broken—but not by The Washington Post or The New York Times.

It was broken by a student newspaper, The State Press, managed by journalism students at Arizona State University.

The students were the first newspaper to inform the public that Kurt Volker, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, had resigned, an event important to the congressional inquiries.

Can it be that our youth will lead us even beyond measures to combat climate change? Maybe they’ll also lead us back to fact-based newspaper journalism.

Lowering the Refugee Ceiling

“Many non-Christians seem to think the idea of an evangelical who cares about refugees is oxymoronic. They are aware of a poll showing that just 25 percent of white evangelicals believe the US has a responsibility to welcome refugees, far lower than any other religious demographic in the country. We’ve become known—fairly or not—as heartless and xenophobic.”

So writes Matthew Soerens in Christianity Today (“Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Lowering the US Refugee Ceiling,” 30 Sep 2019).

Soerens writes to express his sorrow at the lessened number of refugees the United States will be letting into the country in 2020. The average ceiling for refugees has been around 95,000 for the past four decades. In 2020, the number has been reduced to 10,000.

Recent wars, famine, and violence have contributed to massive numbers of refugees, yet we are choosing to help fewer of them. Not only are we ignoring desperate needs. Our example influences other wealthy nations to ignore refugees as well.

Soerens is World Relief’s US director of church mobilization. He has co-authored a book, Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate.

Soerens is not advocating “letting everybody in.” He is not advocating open borders.

What alarms him is reducing to practically nothing the reasoned, systematic intake of those who have always strengthened our country and contributed to its success.

In so doing, we are throwing away one of the foundation stones of this country. Welcoming a fair share of desperate men, women, and children who have lost homes, livelihoods, and safety is part of our DNA that has blessed us and blessed the world.

Wars Forever?

Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy professor at Johns Hopkins, lists contenders for power faced by the United States today. He names them as Russia, China, and Iran. (“The New Containment; Handling Russia, China, and Iran,” Foreign Affairs; March/April 2019)

He suggests we apply the lesson we learned so well in our dealings with the former Soviet Union. We persevered in that contest through containment. Thankfully, though we engaged in smaller wars on the planet, wisely or unwisely, we never engaged the Soviet Union in an all-out war that no doubt would have devastated the planet.

Our problems differ with each one of today’s contenders. Russia nibbles at countries close by like Georgia and Ukraine. China wants hegemony in her area of the world, but the U.S. and China are huge trading partners. Our interest in Iran is limited to containment of conflict in the Middle East.

Mandelbaum did not mention North Korea. That county exemplifies the dangers of rogue nations developing nuclear weapons.

His reasoning involves working with allies, not abandoning organizations like NATO. Nor should we abandon allies like Japan and South Korea and Taiwan.

The widespread use of sanctions against North Korea is one example of smart power. Many nations signed on to the sanctions because of the obvious danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of someone like Kim Jong-un.

The rise in populism endangers our dependence on allies. It would be unwise for populists to scrap the global role of the United States in the world, especially since the current setup calls, not for military action, but careful tuning of U.S. partnerships with allies.

Cautions Mandelbaum: “Should the country turn decisively away from its global role and allow the revisionist challenges to advance unchecked, however, Americans’ happy detachment from the world beyond their borders may disappear. And by the time they realize what they need to protect, it may be too late to do so without great difficulty and high cost.”

How Do We Prevent Another Rwanda?

The African country of Rwanda was devastated by horrible massacres of one ethnic group by another in 1994. An estimated 500,000 to 800,000 were murdered in genocidal attacks merely for being born into a particular ethnic group.

The Nazi genocide of European Jews remains the best known example of this kind of atrocity—the attempted extermination of one group of people by another. People are hunted and murdered merely because they are born into that group.

David Rawson, the U.S. ambassador to Rwanda when the massacre occurred, discussed the need to better understand and prevent such atrocities.(“Predicting and Preventing Intrastate Violence; Lessons from Rwanda,” The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019)

He states: “Great powers are reluctant to intervene, especially in little countries off the radar scope of their national interests.”

After all, with the results of our now-regrettable intervention in countries like Iraq, who wants to send our troops to yet another trouble spot?

Writing in the same issue of The Foreign Service Journal (“Getting Preventive Stabilization on the Map”) , David C. Becker and Steve Lewis suggest a cheaper way: going after movements before they become conflicts.

Neither article is especially optimistic, but the idea of prevention suggests a glimmer of hope. Prevention includes the requirement to work with local partners “and a willingness to take modest risks with meager resources.”

An example was cited of a few aid agency groups in Indonesia who encouraged talks between Christian and Muslim community leaders. The talks led to the realization that outside groups were trying to encourage violence, leading the locals to repudiate such violence.

A quote based on conversation attributed to Winston Churchill says: ““Jaw-jaw is always better than war-war.”

Talking is certainly less expensive in lives and resources. And who knows? It may work.

“A Nation of Strong Communities”

A column in The Economist (August 3 2019, “Lexington: The mighty Dolphins”) praised one American community’s enthusiasm for its swim team. The columnist then reflected on this country’s unique community spirit.

The nineteenth century French commentator on America, Alexis de Tocqueville, noted “a nation of strong communities founded on voluntary service.”

Yet Americans have been commenting for some time about the weakening of their community spirit.

Churches and labor unions have less influence, Lexington said. Careers have become more important for both fathers and mothers. Exhausted parents have less time for groups outside the home.

Well-off parents and activists are more likely to practice community activities. They are more likely to have freer hours, as well as money.

What can we do to give other citizens opportunities for such activities? More paid leave time? Perhaps we should also praise those who are able to temporarily drop careers for a while to serve their families and communities. Less time on digital media and more time with family and friends would serve community, too.

The Cost of Learning

John Thornton, a Baptist pastor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, writes: “Spending on consumer goods has not driven people into debt. Rather the rising cost of fixed goods like housing, healthcare, and education combined with stagnant wages have.” (Plough, Winter, 2019)

Thornton has incurred a large debt for his education. He lauded the schools he attended as successful in instilling in him the character he needed in his career.

It also, however, left him with a monetary debt. That debt influenced him in the choices he had to make to pay it off.

Choices in education increasingly have to do with what fields are more economically rewarding. They have less to do with equipping someone to serve or to explore knowledge. Choosing education has become a “consumer decision.”

Given this outlook, we may produce less teachers and scientists and more computer engineers and CEO’s of finance. We may neglect service careers as well as the “why” careers, the ones seeking knowledge and meaning.

Creating faster computer chips and working ever more efficiencies into our economic machines are not evil in themselves. Good things result: better medical diagnostic tools, for example, or more efficient energy systems.

But our technology also has provided new ways to spread hatred and to kill. We have also improved our economic machines at the expense of the average men and women who maintain them. The underclass that resulted is riddled with growing suicide rates and drug overdoses.

For kindness and meaning and a reason to live, we need thinkers and teachers and healers and spiritual leaders.

We need more of our resources underwriting the basics mentioned by John Thornton: housing, healthcare, and education. Cheaper basics make it easier for the less materially rewarded, including, perhaps, thinkers and teachers and healers and spiritual leaders.

Second Amendment? What About the First Amendment?

Leonard Pitts Jr plays on the words from one of Shakespeare’s plays: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

This Shakespearean line, spoken by the character Dick the Butcher, is a back-handed compliment to lawyers, who may impede tyranny.

Today, Pitts suggests, some are trying to kill all the journalists. (“Trump’s anti-journalism hit squad,” The Seattle Times, Sep 1 2019)

Apparently, a group is targeting journalists unfavorable to President Donald Trump’s administration, searching for any less than admirable episodes in their past lives. The goal is to blacken and render suspect any journalist who writes against the policies of the president.

Trump himself has tweeted against reputable news organizations as “enemies of the people.” He has called The New York Times, winner of over a hundred Pulitzer prizes for excellence in reporting, “an evil propaganda machine.”

Evil propaganda machines certainly exist, mostly the sort who seed the internet with unverifiable rumors. Newspapers who engage in research, who send experienced reporters to the far corners of the earth, and whose reporters sometimes have died to bring the truth to their readers, do not fall in the category of an evil propaganda machine.

Reporting on government, popular and unpopular, is, in fact, the job given the press by the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Press freedom is right up there with freedom of religion and of speech and of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition their government for wrongs done them.

If you want to see what happens to a free press as a democracy is stifled, read an article, in The Economist (“The Entanglement of Powers,” August 32, 2019) about Hungary’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban.

Orban has virtually taken over all three branches of Hungary’s government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. He has been able to do this in part because his party also controls most of the country’s newspapers, turning them into a propaganda machine for Orban.

Times of change and turmoil, as the world has been in at least since September 11, 2001, tempt people to look for simple solutions. Deep reporting on real issues may conflict with nostalgia for easy answers, but we need it all the more.

On Court Prophets and Wilderness Prophets, Christian Responses to the President

That’s the title of an article in Christianity Today (Timothy Dalrymple, July 19 2019). The author talks about those prophets who worked inside the royal court and those who didn’t.

According to the two examples given, court prophets work for a king’s repentance. Wilderness prophets cry out against sin far from any seat of power.

I invite you to read the article for its insights. I found the following passage especially thought provoking:

“As for me, I wonder if we have too many court prophets in an era when wilderness prophets are needed. I also wonder if our court prophets are willing to call out sin when they see it. Whether you view Trump as a David or an Antipas, whether you serve at the court of the resplendent king or stand over against the court from the wilderness, one thing Nathan and John the Baptist held in common was that both were willing to condemn unrighteousness in their rulers—even if it cost them everything.”

What Happens if We Stop Having Babies and Stop Letting in Immigrants?

The United States faces demographic challenges. A rise in suicides, especially for the young, and in drug overdoses, has contributed to an ominous drop in life expectancy for the first time in a century. The employment rate for men of laboring age also is low.

Working couples have less time for children. One child families now are common. Raising a child is expensive. Higher education and medical costs can swamp families with debt.

Nicholas Eberstadt, at the American Enterprise Institute, explores the relationship between a country’s population growth and its power in “With Great Demographics Comes Great Power.” (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2019)

He suggests China’s rise is due in part to its large population. Close to 1 in 5 people in the world today are Chinese. Yet China’s demographic advantage may change due to the aftermath of the now abandoned one child policy of past years. It appears that China’s birth rate has dropped below replacement level.

While the birth rate in the United States is falling, many Americans view immigration with disfavor. In the past, even when our birth rates fell, immigration made up some of the loss. Now even that is in doubt.

Community Falling and Rising

My son, nieces, and a niece’s fiancé visited to celebrate my birthday this week.

It was a lovely few days, crowded with activities. We met airport shuttles (one at 1:30 a.m.), hiked hills in the island’s wooded preserves, and ate my favorite dessert, lemon icebox pie. (The family knows I prefer this over birthday cake.)

We shared during meals and discussed the directions we are taking and retold family legends. I met the fiancé for the first time and was delighted to discover he is an Arkansas boy who talks like me.

Another group I belonged to, formed several years ago to share our lives, provided my husband and me with wonderful friends. However, as members gradually died or moved away, the group chose not to meet any longer.

Indeed, aging’s natural process means most groups die. The exceptions are groups renewing themselves with the young.

Families and religious groups are built through this youth renewal. Renewal depends on birth, but also on adoption. In the case of families, the adoption can be of a child or of an in-law. Spiritual adoption may include the ones left out of other groups, the strangers and the needy.

Gone wrong, families and religions cause enormous harm. Done right, they renew us and give us meaning and purpose and strength for tough changes.

They are, I suspect, our ultimate hope.

Community After the Shootings

After the horrible double shootings recently, I found comfort in the community of my church.

With all the current commentary about the decline in Christian churches, I find no other comfort as healing as this community.

We sorrow, of course, and rage, too, at the continued evil that targets innocent people. Then we find purpose in the story of a man who preached love but was himself targeted and killed. Yet, he overcame.

Indeed, two thousand years later, this man’s followers persist. They tend to refugees and feed the hungry and comfort those who mourn. Some of them are killed, too, but where their message is lived out, people regroup and stubbornly conquer by loving even one’s enemies.

Jesus in the Voting Booth

“Forty years ago in Houston, Texas, a group of conservative pastors pulled off a heist at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention that reshaped both America’s biggest Protestant denomination and its national politics.” (Lexington: “On the Edge,” The Economist, June 15, 2019)

The article comments on the denomination’s story since that Houston meeting. Many evangelical leaders became openly political, usually favoring candidates from the Republican party.

Forty years on, what has been the result of the politicalization of a denomination? According to the article: “The confidence that fueled the 1979 resurgence is long gone. The convention’s membership . . . is at its lowest in 30 years, and falling. Half of all Southern Baptist children leave the faith . . .”

What’s the takeaway? Perhaps a call for the support of certain directions rather than support of a particular party.

Jesus’ ministry took place in an empire ruled by an aristocratic elite, but we still might learn from his interaction with the leaders of the day. He seemed inordinately concerned for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the grieving.

Jesus welcomed any of the wealthy who came to him. However, he told stories like the one consigning a rich man to the flames of hell because of the man’s disregard for the poor beggar in his neighborhood.

Perhaps Christians might vote with these examples in mind.

Frankenstein News

Some call Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein the first science fiction novel. Her theme is repeated in many later stories. Someone creates a powerful being or force only to see the creation become a weapon of destruction.

The printing press, popularized by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, was an amazing technological advance. It made possible the creation of reading material cheap enough for ordinary people to buy. All sorts of information became available. Everything from the Bible to new scientific theories to incendiary tracts was produced and consumed.

From that time, ordinary people had access to ideas and to the pleasures of reading. Countless lives have been saved through accessible knowledge.

However, cheap printing also made possible the spread of false information like the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a hoax purporting to prove a Jewish plot to dominate the world. This type of easily accessible lying contributed to the murder of millions in World War II.

The digital age has multiplied the Gutenberg effect many times over. Warnings of hurricanes and other disasters wake us from sleep, pinged from our mobiles. Supreme Court decisions and election results are known instantly.

But anyone with an email account or a twitter handle can spread stories, verified or not, sending them off like so much tree pollen in a spring wind.

Efforts at some kind of control over hate material and outright lying are necessary but have limited success.

In truth, the only controls over this digital flood are we the consumers. We can be tempted by Frankenstein rumors or we can choose trusted sources for our information.